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Wednesday, 19 February 2014

London Array to stay at 630MW

The consortium behind London Array has announced it will not proceed with the development of Phase 2 of the offshore wind farm.

The decision follows a review by the consortium members of their respective portfolios, the technical challenges and the environmental uncertainties surrounding the site, which require a wait of at least three years until Phase 2’s potential impact on birds could be completely assessed.

General Manager Mike O’Hare said: “Phase 1 is performing very well with January 2014 London Array’s second successive record month for the amount of electricity generated. Our shareholders remain committed to offshore wind in the UK, however the combination of environmental uncertainties, technical challenges and the option to develop other sites has resulted in their decision not to proceed with Phase 2.”

The original consent for London Array was for a wind farm of up to 1000MW, with 630MW in Phase 1 – which is complete, fully operational and the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Phase 2 had the potential to provide capacity for a further 370MW although known constraints on site resulted in plans for just 240MW being drawn up with an expectation that the final capacity would be closer to 200MW.

The project consortium has the following shareholdings: DONG Energy owns 50%, E.ON has 30% and Masdar has 20%.